


you're my achilles heel

by dryadfiona



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Enemies to Friends, F/M, Gift Fic, Pre-Relationship, but they're kids, i pull some things from cursed child and ignore the rest bc it was bad, to lovers one day probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-08 03:57:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8829562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dryadfiona/pseuds/dryadfiona
Summary: Rose hates Scorpius Malfoy.





	

**Author's Note:**

> merry crisis and happy hansolokah, you fuckin whovian  
> this was originally around 15k words like i said but it. was bad. so it's shorter but it's better.

Rose  _doesn't_ care that Albus ditched her. It's not as if this is  _one of the most important days of their lives_ or anything--oh wait! It is! This is the day they choose who their friends are for the rest of their lives! And Albus ditched her.

For a Malfoy.

She groans and opens a random door, staring at who's inside.

A girl--her age, she assumes--looks up from an enormous, ancient-looking book and smiles at her. "Hi! I'm Melantha." Her eyes are a warm hazel, and her short blond hair is being held by her wand (which is  _definitely_ not safe), and she's got a spider perched on her shoulder.

Rose doesn't know what her dad felt when he saw Harry for the first time, but she thinks it must be something like this.

"I'm Rose," she says, stepping in, closing the door behind her. "Can I sit here?"

"Yeah, of course!" Melantha says. Rose does, and Melantha extends her hand, oddly formal for a pale, skinny 11-year-old. "Melantha Rivers, future alchemical Auror extraordinaire!"

Rose takes her hand and shakes. "Rose Granger-Weasley, future...herbologist? I don't know."

"That's okay!" Melantha says, dropping her hand. "So you're the Minister's daughter?"

Rose nods. "Yeah."

"Cool! D'you want a Chocolate Frog?"

\--

Rose learns a lot about Miss Melantha Rivers. Melantha is incredibly short, as evidenced by the fact that when they stood up to get something from the trolley she came to about Rose's shoulder. Melantha seems more excited about visiting Hogwarts Castle than being a Hogwarts student ("I know the Room of Requirement is not supposed to work anymore, but can you even imagine how  _cool_  that'd be?). She can ski, despite both her parents being wizards, she is  _passionately_ anti-Death Eater.

She can make stuff out of metal through a trick her mom showed her that Rose is pretty sure is fourth-year magic, at least, but can't Charm to save her life. She doodles all over her arms and the seats and her book. She packed 10 cool T-shirts despite the fact all of them are against the school's dress code and probably inadvisable due to it being in the middle of the Scottish Highlands. She hates when things are inaccurate. She  _loves_ spiders. She likes cars more than Granddad.

Rose feels like she's meeting the fusion of her mother and Luna Lovegood, and it's great.

They already feel like best friends two hours in. Enough that Rose can confide in her, saying, "I'm so  _mad_ at Albus right now."

"Your cousin?" Melantha asks through a mouthful of chocolate frog.

"Yeah. He  _ditched_ me! And I'm really happy I got to meet you but he  _ditched_ me for a  _Malfoy_!"

Melantha's nose scrunches up. "A  _Malfoy_?"

"I know, right?"

"You mean Scorpius, right?"

Rose nods. "Ugh."

Melantha shrugs. "I don't know. I've talked to him a couple times--my mom works with his dad. He's not that bad. A little weird. I really doubt he's as terrible as you think."

Rose flops onto the seat. "Traitor," she mumbles.

"Oh, shush." Melantha gently swats her with her book (a Potions book that is  _definitely_ fourth-year level).

Rose sits back up. "Where d'you wanna get sorted? I hope I get Gryffindor! It's the coolest."

Melantha shakes her head earnestly. "No! Why do we split kids up anyway? Three wizards from way back when wanted to exclude Muggleborns or people who weren't big heroes or people who weren't geniuses doesn't seem like something worth celebrating."

"So Hufflepuff?" Rose asks.

Melantha narrows her eyes at her.

\--

They pass by the rest of the time chatting about nothing in particular--and soon enough it's time to get off the train and climb into the boats and wait to get Sorted.

Stepping off the train, the only thing Rose can think is that it's freaking  _freezing_. Melantha gently grabs her arm and tugs her towards where the boats will be.

"Rose!" Albus says, waving enthusiastically from one of the boats.

Rose purposefully turns away and heads towards  _literally any other boat_. Melantha sighs, grabs her arm again, and less-gently tugs her to the boat with Albus.

"Hi!" Scorpius says.

"Hello," Rose says coldly.

There's an awkward silence.

"Melantha, right?" Scorpius says.

"Yup! How're you, Scorpius?"

"Good!" Scorpius turns and smiles at Rose.

She doesn't smile back.

He looks away and into the lake, clearing his throat. "So. Where are you two hoping to get Sorted?"

"Not this again," Melantha says, at the same time Rose says, "Gryffindor,  _obviously_."

Scorpius smiles awkwardly. "Great."

He and Albus whisper together for the rest of the ride.

\--

Rose has heard about how beautiful Hogwarts is, but she's in awe when she walks in. Professor McGonagall--who she remembers from various Christmas and holiday dinners, because her mom basically considers the woman an aunt now--is telling them, sternly (even though they haven't done anything wrong), about the houses.

She may be mad, but when she notices the way Albus pales when she says  _Slytherin_ , she grabs his hand and squeezes.

He smiles at her, and for just a second, it's like they're still not even mad at each other.

"It won't be that bad if you  _are_ Slytherin, Albus," Scorpius says.

Rose scowls and drops her cousin's hand.

They walk in, Rose having missed the end of McGonagall's speech entirely, and wait.

A Bones goes first, probably, but she's too queasy to pay attention.

"Granger-Weasley, Rose!"

"Good luck!" someone says, probably Albus, and she nervously giggles in response.

She sits on the stool, the hat is placed on her head, and she waits.

 _So_ , the hat says. Thinks.

 _Hi?_ Rose thinks.

 _You've got your mother's brains, and you want to pick the world apart until it makes sense. You'd do well in Ravenclaw,_ it says.

Rose frowns and thinks,  _I don't_ want  _to be in Ravenclaw._

The hat laughs.  _No, you want to be in Gryffindor. Why?_

_I..._

_Because of your family_ , the hat answers.  _Is that something you'd let define the next seven years of your life?_

 _I thought this was supposed to be a fun experience,_ Rose thinks anxiously.

 _Give me a good reason you should be in Gryffindor,_ the hat thinks,  _and there you'll be._

Rose thinks. Not at the hat, just to herself, though she's sure the hat can hear it. After a few seconds, she thinks,  _I want to know_ _everything there is to know but only so I can make things better, make things_ right _, and if that's not Gryffindor, what is?_

The hat doesn't respond, and she's resigned to wearing blue and bronze for the next seven years of her life when it shouts out "GRYFFINDOR!" and she's heading to a table full of people clad in red and gold and they're all clapping her on the back and James is shouting something happily at her.

More people go, and then it's "Malfoy, Scorpius"'s turn.

The hat takes five minutes. It's an actual Hatstall, and Rose admits, she was expecting it to yell Slytherin immediately, because he's a  _Malfoy,_ but it doesn't.

Of course, after 5.2 minutes (if she counted right), it yells Slytherin anyway.

There's some booing along with the cheers. Rose is tempted to join in. (She doesn't, if only because her mom can and would send her a Howler.)

"Potter, Albus!"

He has a  _look_ on his face, the look he normally has right before he does something incredibly stupid, and she's worried.

The hat immediately yells Slytherin, and whispers break out (even at Slytherin's table).

Rose stares at her cousin hug Scorpius Malfoy and wants to gag.

Only a little bit after comes "Rivers, Melantha!" and to her credit, she doesn't look scared.

After only a few seconds, the hat yells "GRYFFINDOR!" and Rose cheers, pushing James out of the way so that her friend can sit by her. He makes an indignant noise but doesn't try and move back. Melantha sits by her.

"Hey!" Rose says.

"Oh my God, that was terrifying," Melantha squeaks.

Rose laughs.

\--

 "This is  _bull_ ," James groans, staring at the board in the Gryffindor Common Room.

"What?" Rose asks, flipping through her Astronomy book, interested, but only vaguely.

"They're doing a new interhouse cooperation thing this year. We're having all our classes with another house."

"Isn't that the way they've always done it?" Melantha asks.

"Yeah, except this year, we have  _every single class_ with Slytherin students."

Rose suddenly understands why James is talking as if the world is ending. It has.

"No," Rose says.

"At least you can see your cousin?" Melantha says, though it's half-hearted.

Rose groans.

\--

In Transfiguration, Rose and Melantha are in the very front of the classroom, far from Scorpius and Albus, in the back. She's perfectly fine with that.

McGonagall wastes no time in telling them about the various branches of Transfiguration, and while Rose is disappointed she won't be able to turn anything into a rat anytime soon, she still feels a surge of pride when she's able to answer the first question.

"Can anyone tell me the different branches of Transfiguration?" McGonagall asks, clearly not judgmental, just testing the waters.

Rose's hand shoots up. There's a few whispers behind her ( _probably something about being like my mother_ ) but she ignores them.

"Yes, Miss Granger-Weasley?"

"Transformation, vanishment, conjuration, and untransfiguration," Rose says quickly.

"Good, 10 points to Gryffindor. Anything to add, Mr. Malfoy?"

Rose's head turns so fast that she hears an audible  _whoosh_ of air.

Scorpius looks anxious, but says, "Nothing except that Switching is not a different branch of transfiguration so much as a subtype of transformation."

Rose narrows her eyes.

"Excellent, Mr. Malfoy, 10 points to Slytherin!"

Scorpius makes eye contact with her, and while he doesn't look  _angry_ , per se, there's definitely a challenge in his eyes.

Oh, it is  _war_.

\--

Since they have every single class together, it's not even the end of the day before Rose vows to Melantha (and every other Gryffindor willing to listen) that she is going to become the next brightest witch of her age for the sole purpose of rubbing it in Scorpius Malfoy's face.

"Jeez," David Bones says. "You're a little intense, Rose."

"I am Ron Weasley's daughter," Rose says proudly.

"Is that why you're so stubborn?" a voice says from behind her, and the Gryffindors around her all look scandalized, and Melantha just looks annoyed.

"Malfoy," Rose says disdainfully, turning to face him.

"Granger-Weasley," Scorpius says, less disdainfully, more as if he's trying to figure out how he's supposed to say this. "Are we rivals?"

"Duh," Rose says. "What else would we be?"

Scorpius brow furrows. "Friends? I don't even understand why you're mad at me!"

"Because you're a Malfoy!" Rose says. "My dad is a Weasley! How could we be friends?"

Scorpius looks as if she's just punched him. She actually feels pretty bad.

"Rose," a stern voice says from behind her. "Enough."

"Oh, shoot," Rose says quietly. Now she feels worse.

She turns, again, and there's McGonagall, because why not.

\--

McGonagall does not give them detention, but she does put the pair of them in a room to talk, which is arguably worse.

Rose doesn't say anything for the first half hour, but when she does, it's to say, "Look, I'm only going to talk so she can see I made an effort so I can go back to my dorm and resume being better than you."

"Right, because I'm a Malfoy, and automatically scum?" His voice is cold now, the way her dad recounts Malfoy's as being, and she finds she misses when he talked normally.

"Yes," she says, but hesitantly.

"Why?" Scorpius says.

"What?"

"Why does me being a Malfoy make me  _scum_? I haven't even spoken to my grandparents, because my mother  _loathes_ them, and I've grown up knowing that I'm  _not_ better because of my blood! And because I'm a Malfoy, people think I'm You-Know-Who's son! Which is absurd! I look exactly like my father!" He looks frustrated, and wow, he really needed to vent, huh? "So why?"

Rose shrugs, uncomfortable. "I...don't know."

There's a moment of silence.

"I'm sorry," she says.

Scorpius smiles at her. "Apology accepted."

"So...you and my cousin are friends?" she says.

"Yeah," Scorpius says. "Albus didn't care that I was a Malfoy. He's pretty remarkable."

Rose grins. "True. He's a huge dork, though."

"I know," Scorpius laughs. "Also what kind of a name is Albus?"

"What kind of a name is Scorpius?" Rose says.

Scorpius mock-punches her shoulder.

\--

"So you and Scorpius are friends now?" Melantha says.

"Yes," Rose says.

"Your dad is gonna be  _mad_ ," Melantha says.


End file.
